It’s a threat to your heart.
Researchers have developed a sweat-powered finger wrap that could simplify health monitoring to the ease of wearing a Band-Aid. This innovative device, detailed in the journal Nature Electronics on September 3, analyzes sweat from a person’s fingertip to measure levels of blood sugar, vitamins, medications, and other substances.
Interestingly, the wrap harnesses energy from the very sweat it analyzes, making it self-sufficient. According to Shichao Ding, co-lead investigator and postdoctoral researcher at the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, “This is automatic health monitoring at your fingertips.” The device can operate and gather data even when the wearer is resting or asleep.
The fingertips are particularly suited for this technology due to their high sweat production. They have over a thousand sweat glands per fingertip, producing significantly more sweat compared to other body areas.
To utilize this sweat for health monitoring, researchers have integrated several electronic components into a flexible, stretchable polymer that fits comfortably around a finger. The wrap features biofuel cells that convert sweat’s chemical compounds into electricity, which is then stored in stretchable silver chloride-zinc batteries.
These batteries power four sensors capable of detecting specific biomarkers such as glucose, vitamin C, and levodopa—a medication for Parkinson’s disease. A small chip processes the sensor data and sends it to smartphone or laptop applications via Bluetooth.
In practical tests, users wore the device throughout the day, tracking metrics like blood sugar during meals, lactate during exercise, vitamin C intake from orange juice, and levodopa levels from fava beans. The sensors can be exchanged to analyze different biomarkers and might be integrated with other devices for enhanced health management, such as alerting an insulin pump to blood sugar fluctuations.
“Autonomous power, sensing, and treatment all in one device—that’s the ultimate goal,” Ding stated in a university news release.
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